The heifers will help increase farmers’ incomes and improve the domestic supply of fresh milk to Sri Lankan citizens.
The first shipment of 2,000 Friesian Jersey-cross heifers, preg-tested in calf, of Wellard’s contract to supply 20,000 dairy cattle to Sri Lanka, has departed Napier, New Zealand.
Wellard Breeding and Dairy General Manager Colin Webb said each shipment’s timing and size were being matched to the completion of the dairy parlours and cattle handling facilities in Sri Lanka.
“Our next consignment will be sourced from Australia and we will be seeking similar categories of heifers once we start our Australian procurement program,” Mr Webb said.
The heifers will help increase farmers’ incomes and improve the domestic supply of fresh milk to Sri Lankan citizens, reducing the country’s reliance on expensive, imported milk powder. The supply contract builds Sri Lanka’s national dairy herd and technical capabilities, and includes consultancy services provided by Wellard on nutrition, herd management, animal welfare, veterinary and milk quality technical advice.
At the same time, Wellard is in the final stages of procuring the largest shipment of beef cattle to South East Asia for some time when the M/V Ocean Drover will pull into Fremantle to load fodder and cattle before heading to Broome and Darwin to top up. Wellard expects to load 14,000 pastoral cattle exclusively for its longstanding Indonesian clients.
“There haven’t been any large live export vessels servicing South East Asian markets for a while now, so this will be the largest lift of pastoral cattle for quite some time,” said Wellard Chief Operating Officer Brad Gosling.
“We timed the recent, scheduled dry dock of the Ocean Drover to finish just before mustering starts in full swing in northern Australia so the supply of cattle is starting to increase. At the same time we will also be loading cattle in Townsville, so we will be shipping cattle out of every major port in northern Australia.”
Wellard will also load a small consignment of sheep for Oman and Kuwait next week, re-entering the sheep live export market and confirming the trend of smaller consignments servicing the Gulf.